Scuttlebutt Europe #2049 - 16 March

Brought to you by Boats.com Europe, Yachtworld.com Europe, Scuttlebutt Europe is a digest of sailing news and opinions, regatta results, new boat and gear information and letters from sailors -- with a European emphasis. Contributions welcome, send to

Abu Dhabi VOR Stopover and Team Alicante, Spain: An agreement signed in the United Arab Emirates capital, Abu Dhabi, today will see the Arabian Gulf's emerging marine leisure hub become a host port for the 2010-12 race. A racing team from Abu Dhabi will also take its place on the start line of the race in Alicante, Spain in the autumn of next year.

"This event will take Abu Dhabi's marine leisure proposition to the world and will enable us to demonstrate, first hand, our powerful credentials to a highly influential professional yachting audience," said His Highness Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA), the agreement's co-signatory.

The agreement, signed between His Excellency Mubarak Al Muhairi, ADTA's Director General and Knut Frostad, Volvo Ocean Race CEO, takes Abu Dhabi into global yachting history as the first Middle East port to host the event since its 1973 inception.

Team Abu Dhabi, a crew specially selected by ADTA will compete, in a newly designed boat, which will be built in the UAE capital by the Abu Dhabi Mar Group.

The new marina being built at Emirates Palace - the emirate's signature hotel and among the world's most opulent - will be the focal point of the host port.

Al Muhairi said Abu Dhabi, its fellow emirates and the wider Gulf is expected to get fully behind the event and to welcome the Volvo Ocean Race fleet to the region when the crews arrive in Abu Dhabi at the finish of leg two from Cape Town, South Africa.

Menacing black clouds hung over the Waitemata Harbour at the start of day six of racing at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland regatta today and settled over host team Emirates Team New Zealand while allowing a ray of sunshine for the struggling French sailing team.

Strong and gusty sou-west winds forced a cancellation to the day's competition but not before previously unbeaten Emirates went down in defeat to France's seventh-placed ALEPH.

Milder weather is expected tomorrow and racing will resume with flight seven, the last of the round robin. With an earlier start scheduled, the remaining matches of today's abandoned flight six will be squeezed into the schedule tomorrow, or on subsequent days.

Four teams crowding the top of the points table were slated to square off today. Britain's TEAMORIGIN, placed second-equal, was circling in the start box against Sweden's third-placed Artemis with just two minutes to the start when the race committee signaled a postponement. The Italian teams Azzurra and Mascalzone Latino, each placed second-equal, were waiting in the wings for the third race of the day.

The Synergy Russian Sailing Team, winless in Auckland despite a good race record in Nice last November, was scheduled to race the German/French All4One, which is the other team in second-equal place.

After sending the race boats back to the dock, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron race committee, headed by American Principal Race Officer Peter "Luigi" Reggio, remained on station monitoring the weather conditions until 5:00pm before cancelling for the day.

* The America's Cup trophy is returning to New Zealand, where it will be on display for public viewing during the Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta in Auckland.

The Cup, which was won one month ago by the American team BMW ORACLE Racing, has been residing in its new home at the Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Francisco. It is scheduled to arrive in Auckland on Tuesday, March 16th.

This will be a homecoming of sorts for the America's Cup, which spent nearly eight years in the trophy room at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron following Team New Zealand's victory in 1995.

The America's Cup will be available for public viewing at Voyager, the New Zealand Maritime Museum, at the Viaduct Harbour, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week from 1100 until 1600 (1530 on Thursday). The Museum is putting on special rates of just $5 per adult, with free admission for children 14 and under.

New Yachting World Editor Yachting World is the leading global sailing magazine and after twenty five year's at the helm of some of the world's greatest sailing titles current editor, Andrew Bray announced his decsion to retire before last Christmas. Since then Andrew has been unwell, but is now recovering and is scheduled to retire in June.

In the meantime the search for a successor is underway and publisher, IPC Media is looking for an Editor with that rare combination of talents required to shape the future success of Yachting World magazine and its website www.yachtingworld.com. A clear vision for the brand, together with an understanding of the key dynamics at play in sectors such as world yacht racing, cruising and boat manufacture will be a given, together with the ability to spot trends in the sport and ensure that Yachting World remains at the leading edge of comment and opinion.

Interviews commence at the start of April and applications should be sent to Publishing director, Simon Owen at

Green Light! Offshore of Cape Verde, Groupama 3 is powering back into contention in relation to her virtual rival. Indeed she has made up nearly 200 miles in the past 24 hours and her deficit is set to diminish still further over the coming hours! On her 43rd day at sea, Orange 2 was the slowest she'd been along the entire course of the round the world...

Hope coloured proceedings today and Frederic Le Peutrec's voice spoke volumes during the 1130 UTC radio session with Groupama's Race HQ in Paris. The Doldrums was virtually non-existent last night, though Franck Cammas had been rather wary of approaching the zone at dusk. Ultimately, not only was there little to worry about, but added to that the tradewinds are well established in the NE and the fifteen knots or so of breeze is enabling the giant trimaran to make an average speed close to, and even at times greater than thirty knots. At around this same time five years ago, Bruno Peyron and his crew were so tangled up in a ridge of high pressure that they only covered 180 miles on the 43rd day...

There will nevertheless be a ridge of high pressure to negotiate from Tuesday evening, before joining up with a low which will bring with it SW'ly breezes... It's also possible that these winds may accompany them all the way to the finish off Ushant! As such the wind will ease temporarily, which is why navigator Stan Honey has opted to let them run on a little, by getting a little bit of West into their N'ly course. This will be the final weather barrier then before the sprint to the finish, on a virtually direct course towards Brittany. They have just 2,000 miles to cover now. -- translated by Kate Jennings

Groupama 3's log (departure on 31st January at 13h 55' 53'' UTC) (Number of miles covered in relation to the optimum course for the Jules Verne Trophy)

Cork, Ireland: Hannah Jenner will celebrate her 30th birthday as she races into Kinsale as the skipper of the Cork, Ireland, entry in the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race.

Hannah has worked with Clipper since 2004 in a number of roles. As a training skipper she has helped prepare crews for three editions of the Clipper Race and took the helm of Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper in Clipper 07-08, successfully leading her team to a podium finish and the Scottish team's highest ever placing in four campaigns - third overall.

She is the only woman to have skippered a yacht for an entire Clipper Race and since making her mark in Clipper 07-08 she has developed a reputation as one of the rising stars of the British ocean racing scene. In 2009 she completed a double-handed Fastnet Race, raced across the Atlantic on the Open 60 Aviva and ran the New York Marathon having started running just four months previously.

The Clipper 09-10 fleet is due to arrive in Kinsale between 1 and 4 July and on 7 July will sail into Cork City where they will stay until the race restart on 9 July.

At today's announcement plans were also released for the development of Cork City pontoons which will host the Clipper Race in July but will also add a new facility for leisure craft to visit the City of Cork. This will be a permanent legacy from the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race's visit.

Hannah takes over at the helm of Cork following the grounding of the original yacht during the race to Singapore from Western Australia. A replacement yacht has been chartered and the Cork crew, who have been racing on board the other nine yachts of the Clipper 09-10 fleet since the incident, will take delivery of their new vessel in Panama at the beginning of May.

The Challenge 67 yacht has been chartered from a private owner and was built in 1991 specifically for non-professional sailors. She has circumnavigated the world twice and is currently fulfilling a safety role with the Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race 2009. Clipper will take delivery of the yacht on 10 April

2010 GP42 Series In The Audi Medcup - Be Part Of It! In just 2 months, the GP42's will once again be bringing high-tech excitement to the 2010 Audi MedCup. In their inaugural year as part of the 2009 event, these speedsters consistently offered a level of competitiveness at or beyond that of their larger TP52 bretheren, but at a fraction of the cost. In fact, for the media exposure, level of competitiveness, design innovation and sheer excitement, there is no better value today in Grand Prix racing. Its no wonder that most of the GP42 teams enjoy sponsored support unseen in most other classes.

Several teams from four countries are currently planning GP42 Series programmes in the 2010 Audi MedCup, but there's always room for more to join in the fun. With the fabulous race organization, lavish shoreside hospitality, and close attention from the world media, there is no better stage for top-level sailing.

Racing in Stage 1 is set for 12-16 May in Cascais, Portugal...why not join us?

Sydney, Australlia: After nine races over three days of racing in Sydney Guido Belgiorno Nettis and the team on Transfusion have defended their 2009 title and won the 2010 Farr 40 Australian Championship.

Day three of racing was held on the Macquarie Circle, off Sydney's Macquarie lighthouse, in a lighter breeze than the fleet experienced yesterday with a direction of East South East and reaching a top of 10 knots. The lumpy sea state settled a little but still tested the mettle of everyone aboard.

The defending Champion Belgiorno Nettis and the Transfusion team applied the pressure to overall leaders, Lisa and Martin Hill's Estate Master in race eight of the series by winning the race and in turn making the final race of the nine race event the decider.

New Zealander Neill's White Cloud repeated their 2009 performance and finished in third overall in the 2010 Farr 40 Australian Championship.

Also decided at this event is the winner of the 2009-2010 Farr 40 Australian Circuit which Lisa and Martin Hill have won on seven points. The best five results of the six event circuit count and this is the first time Lisa and Martin Hill have won the Farr 40 Australian Circuit.

Estate Master and Transfusion are heading to Dominican Republic next moth to take part in the 2010 Rolex Farr 40 World Championship and the event will then move to the waters of Sydney for 2011 when the Australian fleet play host to the international fleet.

Yarmouth One Design Class Centenary CelebrationsClick on image to enlarge.

The Yarmouth One Design Class, based at the Royal Solent Yacht Club in Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, is one of the oldest and most exclusive fleets of racing keelboats still racing in the Solent. This year sees this small, but perfectly formed class of just nine boats start its Centenary celebrations that will culminate in 2013.

The month of May marks the start of the Centenary with an official launch taking place over the early May bank holiday weekend, including an Open Day being held in Yarmouth on Sunday 2nd May.

The discussions that eventually produced the YOD Class of boats was initially instigated in 1910 by Sir Arthur Cope, RA, (1857 - 1940), a famous portrait painter of the Royal Family who was Class Captain from its foundation until 1935 and Commodore of the Solent Yacht Club from 1926 to 1934 - the Club's Royal status wasn't awarded until 1947. Henry Longmore, who worked at J Samuel White's shipyard in Cowes during the First World War, designed these pretty boats. Of the 13 launched, Theo Smith in Yarmouth built 11 just prior to and after the First World War and two were built in the 1920s by Woodnutts at St. Helens on the Isle of Wight.

The original owners of the YOD Class were generally quite distinguished and included officers from the Army and Navy, a knight, a baronet and the first Lord Mottistone. The Class Rules reflect the social conditions of the day: 'One paid hand is allowed, but he may not touch the tiller during a race.'

Two YODs left the Class in the early years and two sank during racing, leaving nine surviving when the Class was disbanded in 1970. Most of them stayed in the Solent area and thanks to the enthusiasm and perseverance of their present owners over a period of several years, they have all returned to the Royal Solent Yacht Club.

This group of highly dedicated YOD owners, now led by their Class Captain, naval architect Chris Temple, is using the Centenary to help further promote the Class and to ensure that all the existing YODs are cared for and raced from late April to late September on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings.

Anyone interested in attending the Open Day on 2nd May or indeed in sailing a YOD should, in the first instance, contact the YOD Class Captain Chris Temple on email: or telephone: +44 (0)1983 760947.

Carole Castro We regret to inform you that Carole Castro has recently passed away.

She was every bit as important as myself in the success of this company for the last 33 years, she shared all the worries with me, provided love and guidance and managed the business in fact, 24/7 !!

Sadly one cigarette too many caused increasing breathing difficulties and during the Abu Dhabi Boat Show she unexpectedly and suddenly succumbed to these difficulties. I am lucky to have met her and also to have so many strong friends, family and business friendships that are helping me now to overcome and learn to live with this loss. I have no idea what I would have done without them.

I loved her to bits and I am sure all my future endeavours will have a bit of her in them. One thing for sure... "Memories are better than Dreams"... and I have plenty of those!

Letters To The Editor - Letters are limited to 350 words. No personal attacks are permitted. We do require your name but your email address will not be published without your permission.

* From Paul Cayard at the Louis Vuitton Trophy: Only one match was sailed today here in Auckland before strong, gusty winds took hold of the harbor.

In the only match of the day, the French team Aleph go the better start and forced Team New Zealand out to the right side and into adverse current. The French had a comfortable lead at the first mark and the Kiwis tried a gybe set and tore their gennaker in the process. That was the end of it and the French went on to take the win. That was the Kiwi's only loss and it proves that any team can beat any other team out here.

All other matches have been postponned until Tuesday, when the forecast is for more moderate winds. Hopefully, we will get the four scheduled matches in, plus the three that were missed today.

Featured Brokerage 1975 Nautor Swan 44, 125,000 GBP. Located in Plymouth, United Kingdom.

The Swan has received a full Osmosis treatment in 2009. The deck finish is not natural teak – it is a man made finish with a teak look to it. This is both environmentally friedly and also withstands cleaning and scrubbing far better than natural teak.

The Last Word It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. -- Carl Sagan

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